Pool School Gallery celebrates National Lottery Funding
Photograph from left to right shows Pool Academy students, Leah Matthews, Harry Kessell and Leia Knight
Pool School Gallery, a community interest company, has been awarded £45,400 by the National Lottery to work with the Cornwall Council Schools Art Collection. This important and culturally significant collection was created with the intention that children in Cornwall should have access to great art. Artists represented include Jacob Epstein, Barbara Hepworth, Alfred Wallis and Terry Frost.
During 2018 Pool Academy students worked with artists to transform the school’s old caretakers’ bungalow into a new art gallery. Thanks to National Lottery players, the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) will support an exciting project using the Cornwall Council Schools Art Collection. Students will research its history and create exhibitions and learning materials based around it. The project examines not what art means, but what art means to us. Students will be responsible for telling its story and they will help to shape and secure its future. The project is supported by Pool Academy, The Royal Cornwall Museum, Cornwall Museums Partnership and Cornwall Council.
Claire Meakin, Pool Academy’s Principal, says: ‘I am really proud that our students are working with this culturally significant collection.’
The Chair of Governors at Pool Academy, Clive Bramley, says: ‘We are very grateful to the National Lottery for awarding us the grant.’
Ian Wall, Director of the Royal Cornwall Museum, says: This initiative, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is a great example of partnerships coming together to nurture the creative talent of young people’.
Emmie Kell, CEO of Cornwall Museums Partnership says: ‘We are delighted to support this project as it completely aligns with our values of collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity. We look forward to seeing students realise their creative potential through the range of projects the gallery will enable them to be involved in.’
Nerys Watts, Head of HLF South West, said: ‘Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, this project will put Pool Academy students at the heart of telling the history of Cornwall’s Schools Art Collection and the cultural heritage it has built for them to explore and enjoy!’
Cllr Bob Egerton, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Economy at Cornwall Council says: ‘Cornwall Council is thrilled to see this innovative project getting underway. The purpose of the Council’s Schools Art Collection has always been to bring great quality art into the heart of our schools and this project achieves exactly that. It will give students the time to study the artworks more intensively and to be inspired to make their own creative and critical responses. The students will also develop a series of exhibitions and activities that will enable the local community and other schools to appreciate the works. We very much look forward to seeing the new approaches to working with the Collection that the students will develop.’
EB Year 7 says: I think it’s important to work with the Cornwall Council Schools Art Collection because it’s a great experience to go to the gallery, enjoy making things for it, and being able to come back and look at the work you’ve created and what you’ve achieved. I think that they (artists) are inspiring children to achieve what they want to achieve. Let’s say an artist showed some children his or her work, then the children might want to create something like that.